Attacks on the Press in 2012 - Eritrea

Committee to Protect Journalists, Attacks on the Press in 2012 - Eritrea, 14 February 2013, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/512b79d6a.html [accessed 1 April 2015]

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Key Developments

CPJ names Eritrea the most censored nation in the world.

Numerous journalists jailed without charge in secret locations.

CPJ identified Eritrea as the most censored country in the world in 2012. No independent domestic news outlets have been allowed to operate since a widespread September 2001 government crackdown on dissent. The last accredited foreign news reporter was expelled in 2007. State media operate under the rigid control of Information Minister Ali Abdu, who uses intimidation and imprisonment to enforce a government-approved message. The Red Sea nation is the continent's leading jailer of journalists; the detainees include independent reporters and editors swept up in the 2001 crackdown, along with numerous state media journalists who have somehow violated the government's strict controls. The detainees are held without charge and in secret locations. President Isaias Afwerki has consistently refused to account for the whereabouts, legal status, or health of the jailed journalists, or even confirm reports that some have died in custody. Fearful state media journalists have fled the country in large numbers. Eritrea has the fifth highest number of exiled journalists in the world, according to CPJ data. In July, the U.N. Human Rights Council unanimously condemned "widespread and systematic violations" and appointed a representative to further investigate abuses, according to news reports.

[Refworld note: The sections that follow represent a best effort to transcribe onto a single page information that appears in tabs on the CPJ's own pages, which also include a number of dynamically-generated graphics not readily reproducible here. Refworld researchers are therefore strongly recommended to check against the original report: Attacks on the Press in 2012.]

Imprisoned on December 1: 28

Eritrea is Africa's worst jailer of journalists and the fourth worst worldwide, according to CPJ research.

Possible Deaths: 5

Unconfirmed reports say that five imprisoned journalists may have died in Eritrean government custody. CPJ has not independently confirmed those reports, most of which have cited former Eritrean prison guards as sources. CPJ continues to list the journalists in its annual prison census until the deaths can be verified.

In 2006, an unbylined story on the pro-Ethiopian site Aigaforum reported the deaths of the three detainees, citing prison guards who had fled the country. In 2009, a U.K.-based Eritrean opposition site, Assena, published what it claimed to be death certificates for the three reporters

Mattewos Habteab, MeqalehDawit Habtemichael, Meqaleh

In 2012, the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders reported that the two journalists had died. The group cited "prison guards who fled the country" as its source.

In Exile: 27

Eritrea had the fifth-highest number of exiled journalists in the world for the years 2007-12, according to CPJ research. Many settle in neighboring Sudan.

Most Censored: 1st

Eritrea bars international journalists and imposes dictatorial controls on domestic coverage, making it the most censored nation in the world.